Iraqi authorities, for their part, have been providing incentives for refugees to return, such as free bus rides from Syria.

They have also tried to encourage those Iraqis displaced inside the country - who constitute about half the total - to return to their homes by offering families grants of $800 to do so.

So far 4,700 families have taken up the offer with another 8,500 registered for them.

But not all the returnees are confident the security improvement is permanent.

Watching decorators paint the home he has returned to in east Baghdad from Syria, retired policeman Abu Naseem told Reuters news agency: "After all this effort to fix the house I hope there will be no more fighting.